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Currently
an estimated 50,000 to 60,000 wolves inhabit Canada,
the second-largest population in the world after
the former Soviet Union. Historically, wolves inhabited
virtually all regions of Canada, from the shores
of the Great Lakes to the northern tip of Ellesmere
Island, with the exception of Prince Edward Island,
Anticosti Island and the Queen Charlotte Islands.
(The northernmost wolf habitat in the world is about
83° north latitude, Cape Morris Jesup in neighboring
Greenland.)
Today
Canadian wolves occupy about 85 percent of their
original range, and although wolf populations
may be fluctuating in local areas, overall
the number of wolves is considered stable.
By comparison, there are about 10,000 wolves
in the U.S. (more than half of which are in Alaska)
and they occupy only a tiny fraction -about 5 percent
- of their original range. In Canada, wolves may
be legally hunted virtually everywhere except
inside national/provincial park boundaries.
Wolves in the U.S. have protected status as
an endangered or threatened species everywhere
except Alaska.
All
wolves in Canada are members of the species gray
wolf (Canis lupus). Four gray wolf subspecies
are found in Canada: Canis lupus occidentalis
(western Canada, as well as most of Alaska);
Canis lupus nubilus (southeast Alaska and central
and northeastern Canada); Canis lupus lycaon
(southeastern Canada); and Canis lupus arctos
(Arctic islands and Greenland), also known
as Arctic wolves or white wolves.
Like
their U.S. counterparts, wolves in Canada can range
in color from coal black to off-white. Most of the
wolves in Canada's high Arctic have pelage best described
as a creamy white color. White hair shafts have more
air pockets than those with pigmentation, thus providing
better insulation in a climate that varies from cool
in mid-summer to frigid during winter's darkness.
Wolves
inhabiting the most northern and western regions
of the continent (including most of Canada
and Alaska) are usually larger than their cousins
in the Lower 48, an adaptation to the larger
prey species they encounter (moose, caribou,
musk oxen). Prey species for wolves in the
Lower 48 are more likely to be deer or smaller
mammals. On average, wolf packs are also larger in
Alaska and Canada, where as many as 10 or 20 animals
may stay together as a group.
Wolves
have adapted to each of the diverse habitats and
climates found in Canada's 3.8 million square
miles. Envisioning wolves in the southern regions
- amid prairies, forests and mountain valleys
with plentiful vegetation and prey - is easy.
But they also thrive in the far north (in far
lower population densities) on tundra islands
sealed in ice, snow and bitter cold nearly year-round,
an environment seemingly too barren to support any
large mammals. Like every living organism, their
adaptation to the surrounding environment is
ongoing: on the Queen Elizabeth Islands, there
is evidence that wolves, which are known to
scavenge the carcasses of seals killed by polar
bears, may be learning to hunt seals on their
own.
Sources
of current information about Canada's wolves are
as diverse as the territory they inhabit. In
the south, the longest continuous wolf study
in the world is ongoing in Ontario's Algonquin
National Park, where researchers have studied
wolves since the 1950s. Conversely, the current
population of wolves in the far north Arctic
Archipelago is virtually unknown. Best-guess numbers
are gathered using anecdotal reports from villages,
reports from hunters, and extrapolated by estimating
the number of large prey animals in an area, then
calculating by ratio the potential number of
wolves they could support.
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© Wolf Song of Alaska
P.O. Box 671670, Chugiak, Alaska 99567-1670
wolfsong@alaska.com
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Federal ID #92-012739
The Wolf Song of Alaska logo, web site text and photos are copyrighted, registered, and protected, and cannot be used without permission. Photos by Monty Sloan, Tom & Maria Talasz.
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